Medical procedures, such as imaging procedures, often rely on the use of a media, such as contrast media, flushing media, or other liquid, solid, and/or gas media, that is dispensed and/or injected into the biological structure to be imaged such that the procedure provides more detailed information to a radiologist or other medical personnel responsible for analyzing the procedure results (such as medical imagery). Such medical imaging procedures may include, for instance, angiography, computed tomography (CT), ultrasound and/or NMR/MRI. The term “contrast media”, as employed herein, refers to essentially any suitable type of media, as used in the medical arts, that is injected into a patient and, in the context of a medical imaging procedure (such as MR, angiography, ultrasound or CT), facilitates in highlighting selected areas of the patient's body while the patient is being scanned. In addition, the term “contrast media”, as employed herein, may also refer to other diagnostic or therapeutic agents for injection into patients. The term “flushing media”, as employed herein, refers to essentially any suitable type of medium, such as a saline solution, that can be used to flush contrast medium from the tubing of an infusion system and that is well-suited for flowing through the patient's body so as to serve a useful supplementary purpose, such as keeping his/her veins open in preparation for another infusion of contrast media. Contrast media is often injected into a patient's vasculature prior to the medical imaging procedure by a dispensing device, such as a power injector having an electronic controller and/or a user interface in communication therewith.
Some dispensing devices include electronic controllers and/or user interfaces that are capable of communicating with and/or controlling (in some cases remotely) the dispensing device. For example, in some cases, the controller may allow a user to remotely control the dispensing device from a control room using, for instance, a user interface (such as a touch screen or personal computer) that is in communication with the controller and/or the dispensing device.
In addition, in some medical imaging facilities, the dispensing device may be in communication with an extravasation detection accessory (EDA) (such as the E-Z-EM Extravasation Detection Accessory (EDA®)), or other accessory device capable of detecting extravasation events in a patient undergoing a medical imaging procedure. Such accessories may include, but are note limited to, adhesive electronic sensors capable of being adhered to a patient's skin at the contrast media injection site (in procedures using a power injector, for example). The EDA may thus be capable of detecting changes in impedance at the injection site corresponding to an extravasation event (which may include, for instance, cases wherein contrast media is inadvertently released outside the targeted injection area (i.e., outside the vasculature of the patient). EDA devices may include embedded electronic components that may be in communication with the electronic controller of the dispensing device, such that an operator of the dispensing device may choose whether or not to enable the EDA during a given dispensing operation. In addition, the EDA may generate a data set during the course of its operation during a dispensing operation. For instance, an EDA may, in some cases generate a data set that may be stored either in its embedded electronic components, or sent to the electronic controller of the dispensing device for storage along with the dispensing device data. Such EDA data may include, for example, time and date stamps, an indication as to whether or not the EDA was enabled, and indication of whether or not an extravasation event was detected during a given dispensing operation, and an impedance profile (over time) generated by the EDA as it is adhered to an injection site.
Some dispensing devices used in medical imaging practices are syringe-based power injectors (including the E-Z-EM Empower CT® and Empower CTA® power injector systems) that may include a plurality of syringes (configured to be capable of containing prescribed volumes of contrast and/or flushing media). In addition, such systems are electronically controlled via electronic controllers that may be programmed to administer a variety of contrast media either arterially or intravenously in conjunction with medical imaging procedures. Such systems may include injector rams that are capable of extending and/or retracting so as to enable the dispensing device to fill and/or dispense from one or more syringes.
Conventional dispensing devices allow a user to control the initialization, filling, and/or retracted of individual syringes using a user interface (such as, for instance, arrow keys corresponding to the direction of retraction and extension of the injector ram). However, conventional dispensing systems (including controllers, dispensing devices, EDA's and other accessories) do not allow for the user to initialize, fill, and/or retract multiple syringes engaged with the dispensing device (such as one syringe used for contrast media and an alternate syringe filled with flushing media) with a single user input (such as the touch of a single button or a single touch screen command using the controller and/or user interface). In addition, conventional dispensing systems do not provide a method for adjusting the properties of a user interface (such as the display of an elapsed time from a given dispensing operation or the language of text displayed by a user interface) in communication with the dispensing device without at least cutting the power to the system and/or completely reconfiguring the dispensing system. Thus, using conventional dispensing devices and/or systems, clinicians must take valuable time to initialize and fill multiple syringes (containing, for instance, contrast media and/or flushing media) for certain medical procedures. In addition, the user interface of conventional dispensing devices must be shut down and/or reconfigured in order to adjust user interface display parameters (such as language preferences). In addition, when using conventional dispensing devices, clinicians must utilize separate timing devices to properly ascertain the elapsed time from a given dispensing operation which may distract the clinician from monitoring the user interface of the dispensing device which may indicate important clinical information such as the occurrence of an extravasation event, a fault in the dispensing operation, and/or the amount of media dispensed during a given dispensing operation.
Thus, there exists a need for a device, method, and/or computer program product for controlling multiple initialization, filling, and retraction functions of a medical device, including, but not limited to, a dispensing device or other medical imaging accessory such that a user may more efficiently and more easily control the dispensing device to perform such functions via a single user input. Also, there exists a need for a system, method and/or computer program product capable of modifying the display parameters of a user interface in communication with one or more dispensing devices (or other medical devices of accessories located in a medical suite) such as the language of the text displayed by the user interface, or the display of an elapsed time graphic by the user interface.